Hey pyschobitch driver in the white tiquan tag Yhe14t I hope the cops yank your license permanently.

The hunt is back on at the Scotman! haggishunt.scotsman.com/camera.cfm

Holy crappers Batman, the forecast is now calling for 20" of snow by tomorrow morning!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm glad I stocked up on food and firewood. I also have 2 elderly neighbors and always want to be sure if an emergency struck that I have enough to go around. I had just ordered a new pair of mukluks but they aren't here yet so I'll have to see if I can dig out the Originals. The FM, the First Mukluks. Back in the day when I was one of the Children of the Corn, we didn't have things like the internet to entertain us. We had things like the stack of National Geographics from my grandpa's subscription and he never threw an issue away. I'd sit and read through them for hours. One day, um, maybe I was 10 or 11? I stumbled across an article about the arctic and discovered mukluks. Oohh. Ahhh. I wanted some. My grandma cool as she was, called an eskimo in Alaska or Canada or something and had a pair sent down for my bday. They were wonderous. They were stupendous. Not well made by todays standards, these were the deal real. Goat fur and seal skin, and the bottoms had something akin to a rubber mat stuck to them. I loved those things. I lived in those mukluks. Years later I insisted miniature representations of the mukluks formed out of icing be on a bday cake. I wore those suckers for years. Decades. Nearly every picture of me in that early era rain or shine shows them on my feet. And somewhere in the depths of the Misty Mountain known as my master closet, they still exist nearly 35 yrs later. They may be making an appearance later today.

WHOA! Just watched Battlestar Galactica: The Plan on Comcast Demand. Who the hell knew?! This is a direct to DVD movie that includes the same story you knew - or thought you knew, as part of the series was actually the backstory for this story! This puts a totally new spin on things.

The voices in my head haha I mean my Weather Channel brand weather station says we're due for snowfall baby! It's a'comin. At least it is on a weekend as corporate america wouldn't care a rat's ass if we got 8 or 20" of snow. Hell I remember one time the state declared a snow emergency and said they'd fine anybody caught driving the snow was so bad, and my office still didn't close not even then. For tonight I'm going to start up the fire, put on the tree lights and hunker down and wait for it to hit. 

On the way home from kung fu class tonight I heard the song 'Going Home' by Libera on Sirius spa. Ahh. What else can be said, it was like listening to angels sing. I googled it and they are a boys choir out of London. The song sounds familiar but I can't place it. Reminds me of something you might here from LOTR.

 

Going home going home I am going home Quiet like, some still day I am going home It's not far, just close by, through an open door Work all done, care laid by never fear no more

Mother's there expecting me Father's waiting too Lots of faces gathered there All the friends I knew I'm just going home

No way - I just stumbled across this on Amazon. There are actually subliminal tracks you can purchase to help you love to exercise, play the french horn, learn icelandic (um...) or a variety of other things. Has anything ever tried anything like this? I wonder if it works.

Captains Log; USS Exercise Bike. Week 4.

The icelandic trek exercise program is paying off. It's been one month now and it's noticeable. Last night I went to V's holiday party and as soon as I walked in two people told me I looked fantastic and was glowing. Groovy. It improves the circulation and overall I do feel better. I am up to 15 miles in one hour now at a medium difficulty setting. So far I've convinced one person I know to get a bike of her own, and her whole family has decided to use it while watching tv.

The party was good but I squeaked home at midnight hoping to get up early and catch a ride before the bad weather started. By 8am the phone lines were buzzing as the Riders of Rohan were planning to convene at the stable but by 8:15 it was already raining so that was shot. Instead I am going to focus on home repairs today as I am having the hinges on my kitchen cupboards replaced. Yeah, that means no more doors suddenly going lose and falling off! Thank gods for small miracles.

Had a really bizarre dream last night where I went driving to Swedesboro, got out of the car on a dirt road and started walking through the very beautiful countryside, and got helplessly lost. Ended up in a farmers backyard in Carney's Point or something down south, then the GPS failed to work correctly so I couldn't find the way back to the car. Got stuck wandering around a town harvest festival with loads of people out having fun but no one could tell me how to get back to where I was parked at, or how to get to Swedesboro, and then a storm was blowing in. Weird. I hate being lost.

This prompted me to get up and order a Bushnell Backtrack device (Amazon $59) that allows you to set a GPS location, and then it has an electronic compass that points the way back to it. You just follow the compass pointing you back to where you came from. It is not a full blown GPS and it can only hold 3 compass locations at a time, but it is a small device that you can throw in a pocket or pocketbook and can use just about anywhere to get back to where ever you are trying to go but just can't remember, like where you parked the car on a dirt road.

Decided I didn't like that song.

Like I always said if a house cat was big enough, it would eat you.

www.cracked.com/article/226_6-adorable-cat-behaviors-with-shockingly-evil-explanations/

Tonight for dinner I decided to try something different and bought a box of alaskan salmon burgers. Tried one. Uggggg did not like. Still do not like. Cannot get fish taste out of mouth. Hope I cooked it long enough. If I keel by tomorrow you can tell everyone I was done in by a fish. Yuk.

Got a call last night from the stable that Freydis' eye was swollen and teary. Oh crap. Called the emergency equine eye doc, she wanted her put on banamine. Naturally the stable was out so ended up taking a personal day today as I had to go out to the local vets first thing and pick up some tubes. Equine vet is going to check in this afternoon. The eye is not as swollen today so maybe it is not a uveitis attack but dirt that got in the eye as she was covered in mud. Will have to wait and see how it plays out.

I've been reading 'The Horse Boy' which is a true story about an autistic child whose father decides to take him to the horse people of Mongolia in search of a shaman who can cure him. There is a documentary of the same name playing in very limited distribution. Catch it if you can.

Is opera 10.10 constantly hogging memory and crashing for anyone else? This is getting really lame.

We're getting a wintery mix today so riding was canceled. We'll ride in the snow, but not in rain. The weather witch doctors say we might get as much as 4" of snow tonight - bah! Of course, this is because I have tickets to White Christmas tomorrow so naturally the roads to Philly will be a big slushy mess! I am putzing around the house today instead and just decorated the Yule tree. This is bittersweet as there are some people no longer in my life that I miss, and I can't imagine why they don't miss me. But that is how some people are. I have other friends and activities to keep me busy. Next weekend there is a holiday party at V's, and then the Christmas Ride which I pray to the gods is not full of obnoxious idiots on horseback. (big ride, lots of drinking, full of people and horses who have no business being on a trail ride) The week after is the office holiday party and the Solstice and I am thinking of driving out to the farm, or maybe I will just stay home and have a few people over. I am also hoping that B still his big Christmas Eve blow out at the mansion this year even though his business was walloped by the economy. After so many years it's become tradition and I look forward to going. Two years ago I took the small pipes with me and piped carols in the kitchen and last year everyone asked me to do it again this year, so maybe! Overall though I like Solstice better then Christmas. My decorations this year are toned down and very woodsy with lots of green garlands, deer antlers, rocks, and a few bird nests tossed in. I also have a collection of Belsnickles and Odins that I put out. My favorite is the Scandinavian 'Santa' (Thor) riding a white goat. And for Yule breakfast this year I've decided to once again cook my specialty; Yule lamb and possibly some venison which fits with the woodland theme.

It's now been 2 weeks on the exercise bike. I started out only being able to do 7 miles in one hour at the medium difficulty setting, and am now up to 14. Initially I found my heart rate would start getting wiggy around 109 but I am now getting up to the 130s fairly comfortably. According to the calorie counter I am burning off ~450 calories in that hour. Not too shabby. I will say that after 2 weeks of this I do feel better, less tired, more positive, and just overall more energetic.

Now a word on stress. To do the YNY program you need a heart monitor watch so you can gauge your workouts. When I first got one I carried it around all day checking my heart rate randomly. Eee gads. Most of the time, even when I didn't realize it, my rate was way up in the stress zone. What freaked me out was that some nights when I was stressing over work and crashed on the couch watching tv, my heart was still up in the stress zone and not in the relaxed zone. Not good. Not healthy. I bet many of you are in the same boat. Stress really is the silent killer. With the regular nightly spinning (still infront of the tv but now in motion) I find that my heart rate drops much more quickly after exercise and within minutes its comfortably down into the relaxed state, not buzzing along at a constant stress high. This has been an eye opener. Folks, your heart was not meant to be zinging at 60-70% of your max heart rate when sitting still! That is how it should be during exercise. If your 'relaxed' state is that high, then you would benefit from a daily exercise program as well. I hope the HogFather brings everyone on my lj list a heart monitor for HogsWatch this year!

Looks like tomorrow we are doomed to get the first snowy mix. That will cancel riding for sure. Pamster is coming over for dinner if the roads aren't bad, and on Sunday I'm going to see White Christmas at the Kimmel which has just come off Broadway.